User blog:AustinDR/Amy Hughes (EP)
For starters, I guess I'll start with an apology. I'm sorry if I have ever gotten annoyed by frequently being asked questions on the PE/CM trope. Having a long history with the trope, I sometimes forget that not everyone would have an experience with the trope. With a villain having "no redeeming traits," while it's a part of the criteria, it doesn't mean that the antagonist in question automatically qualifies. For instance, in my favorite book series, Dork Diaries, MacKenzie Hollister is frequently described as being remorseless. However, she will never qualify because her actions amount to villainous bullying, theft, and blackmail. Lest the author makes MacKenzie into a homicidal maniac, she will never count. Or a sociopath: again, just because they are remorseless or have no redeeming traits, that is not enough, unless their actions are heinous by the standards of their story and generally. Once again, I am sorry if I get irritated by this. I'll try to be more open for discussion without getting annoyed. With that being said, here is one of my most recent candidates that had been upvoted: What's the Work? OK, just finished watching a television series. Dead of Summer is a 2016 horror series taking place in a fictional camp known as Camp Stillwater. Taking place towards the end of the 80s, the camp is run by some counselors: one is named Jessie Tyler (your stereotypical Alpha Bitch at first); Blair, a Camp Gay man; Andrew a transexual; Joel (the stereotypical black nerd); Alex a Russian jerk jock; Cricket, Blairs' best friend; Blotter; and Amy Hughes. While running the camp, dark secrets are learned about the camp that range from centuries ago. Who is she? Amy Hughes is a counselor at Camp Stillwater. To describe her, Amy is nice, very outgoing, and sociable. Ever since the death of her family she felt that she wasn't able to fit in, especially after her only friend Margo died because of an accident at a party. In the end, it comes down to her goal being I just want to have friends. Too bad that is far from the truth. What has she done? I guess I'll start from the beginning. When she was younger, Amy was mistreated by her family. Her parents were neglectful, and her brother bullied her, smugly saying that their parents were going to send her to live with their grandmother. Eventually, this culminates in Amy accidentally killing her brother's pet rat by putting it into the garbage disposal. Later on, her brother tricks her into the garage, and locks her in. The next morning, firemen arrive to the home, informing her that her family had died due to carbon monoxide poisoning that was brought on when the fireplace flue was closed seemingly by accident. Though, of course, it turns out that this was Amy's doing. Amy found herself in foster home to foster home until she eventually met Margo and befriends her. Around that time, Amy arrives to Camp Stillwater, and began to feel a connection with Malphas, a demon that was sealed in the lake by Holyoke and his followers. When Deb informs her that there wasn't a place for her -- unless an applicant were to drop out -- she convinces Margo to go to a party that evening. When the cops are called, the two run upstairs to hide. Margo tries to escape from the window only to fall through it. Amy grabs her and tells her her intentions before allowing her to fall off the roof to her death. She then pretended to be in deep mourning once the authorities showed up; the only one who had suspicions about the ordeal was Margo's friend Krissy. OK, now to the main plot. Amy's real goal is to create a pentagram to summon Malphas. To this end, she connives behind the backs of her co-counselors: * In the pilot episode Patience, the body of the groundskeeper, Dave is found in the lake. Amy is revealed to have drowned Dave, and uses his body to make the first point of the pentagram. * In the second episode of the series "Barney Rubble Eyes," a counselor named Jason "Blotter" Cohen is fired by Deb for getting high on LSD (which was actually the doing of another counselor). While he's walking alone, he gets ambushed and killed by Amy whilst she's in a masked costume. She decapitates him, and buries his head in another designated spot. However, when she became aware of her being watched by Officer Garrett Sykes, she takes the head, and reburies it. * In "How to Survive in the Woods," the counselors take the campers on a trail. During that time, Joel began to get tormented by Holyoke who tells him to kill Amy or someone else would die. Naturally, Joel refuses, and it seems that Holyoke was proven wrong because they were able to save a young girl with asthma. That night, however, Carolina "Cricket" Diaz goes to meet with Alex for a date. Without warning, she is attacked by a masked figure, and is shoved onto a bear trap which crushes her head. As with the aforementioned case, it once again turns out to be Amy. Diaz's death site is then made the third point in the pentagram. * In the eighth episode "The Devil Inside," the remaining counselors speculate that Amy had become a vessel based on the events from the last episode. Here, it is also discovered that Holyoke was actually framed for the murders of his congregation. Holyoke tells the counselors that they must get Amy and bring her to him, not so he could kill her, but to exorcise the powerful demon from within her. Officer Garrett concludes that someone was going to get murdered at Eagle Creek based on the pentagram, and the group race there. Just as Amy was about to slice through Alex's neck, the group stops her. She goes to put the knife down...but then stabs Joel with it, killing him. Amy is apprehend, and she is taken back to the cabin for the exorcism. * In "Home, Sweet Home," Holyoke tries to call on the Spirits of Light to aid in exorcising Malphas. As he plays on his organ, however, blood began to spew from the lake, seemingly destroying him. Jessie begs Malphas to allow him to use her as a vessel. Jessie is then submerged in the pure water, apparently destroying Malphas. Jessie is saved despite the belief that she would die from the pure water, and Amy asks to have a few minutes to herself (since the camp was to be closed down). When Jessie was unconscious, Amy immediately goes to perform CPR for her....or that is what it seems. Amy actually allows Malphas to reenter into her. Krissy (the girl I mentioned earlier) arrives to the camp to warn Deb about Amy's true nature, only to then be met on the other end of Amy's axe. Amy then kills Deb after admitting that she killed her family. * "She Talks to Angels": The remaining counselors try to leave Stillwater only for their car to break down. Amy reveals her true colors to them explaining that Holyoke had inserted a bit of his soul into Jessie so to keep Amy from escaping with Malphas. Alex, Officer Garrett, and Jessie try to escape Amy who reanimates the corpses of the people she killed and sends them out to hunt them down. Garrett receives some glass in the side and demands that Jessie and Alex go on without him. Amy arrives and kills him (but we'll get to that revelation later). Jessie calls the police for assistance. They arrive to the camp, and one notices Amy seemingly crying. Later on, Alex and Jessie are called outside by an officer...but it's immediately revealed it was just Amy mimicking the voice of one of the officers that she had killed. Alex attempts to fight Amy off, but he gets stricken by the axe. With Jessie being the only survivor, she races back to Holyoke's cabin. Thankfully, Drew and Blair arrive just in time along with Officer Garrett. They try to blockade the doors to keep the reanimated corpses out, and Jessie makes a circle of pure water around Amy. She then tries to play a recording of Holyoke's organ music, but it was tainted by Amy when she touched it. Fortunately for them, they remember a recording that Joel made. They use it, and it weakens Malphas and the reanimated corpses. Jessie is able to grab a hold of Amy's axe, and she slams it deep into Amy's skull. The blood from Amy's wound collects into a canteen while Holyoke's soul is able to purify the lake. Jessie then learns that Garrett actually didn't survive his encounter with Amy, and that he is bound to the camp. She leaves with Drew and Blair while Garrett reunites with his father. Freudian Excuse? Mitigating factors? I will admit that Amy's backstory is pretty bad. Her being neglected by her parents and her brother bullying her doesn't do her any better. With that being said, it goes to show Amy as a complete psychopath who didn't think twice about poisoning her family. With Margo, when she first came to camp, she broke down when she laments on how she wasn't able to save her. However, she was only doing so in order to garner sympathy from the other counselors so that they wouldn't suspect a thing when she killed them. As for Malphas, she is fanatically devoted to the demon due to how she felt that he was the only one who "understood her." Beyond that, she mainly wanted to be more powerful. With her being possessed than repossessed by Malphas, she was still in control of her actions. If anything, she became even more Axe Crazy than she already was. Heinous standard She sets it. With any other antagonists from the series, there's Malphas. However, Malphas lacks characterization and only psychically appears a few times. His moral agency is also suspect. Then there's the satanists. Besides them being a group, none have enough characterization to stand out. The leader is actually a sheriff named Boyd Heelan. Going by the alias of "the Teacher," Boyd only commits one murder, that being the death of Garret's father. Other than that, he doesn't do anything else to stand out. Conclusion Thoughts? Category:Blog posts